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Dean’s Greeting
Greetings, GSBA community,
The year 2022 has been singular and unknown, taking us into uncharted waters. Classes, with some exceptions, have gone online, and events and meetings for students have all been canceled. Online classes are generally less interesting and less effective or incite more distractions than in-person classes. They are sometimes interrupted by inexperienced users or software problems, irritating participants. Students are deprived of chances to meet their classmates in person, making it difficult to get to know one another. The social distancing rules have shut down the usual campus events, where students are supposed to learn about the GSBA culture and build a sense of community. Regrettably, they cannot fully enjoy school life.
Looking at things from a different angle, taking classes from home without commutes opens new doors. This switch to online has brought about huge changes in campus life, which you may find unsatisfactory and inconvenient. I ask for your understanding as it has been inevitable for educational institution worldwide.
I was appointed as a full-time professor at KHU’s Graduate School of Business Administration in 1995. Since then, I have been at GSBA, witnessing its advancement for over 25 years. In preparation for the upcoming millennium, GSBA decided to add programs along with branch campuses in concert with the Korean Army, Navy, and Air Forces. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, those newly added programs, including Medical Management, Management Consulting, Arts & Cultural Management, Brand Management, and China Management, have held their ground as essential major programs. GSBA has been an innovative graduate school that emphasizes tailored, demand-driven education, distinguished business management education, and balance between theory and practice in education. In 2004, the Joongang Daily ranked our programs as being the most outstanding in the country.
We overcame a short slump subsequently by opening new weekend classes in concert with businesses (Service, Convergence, and E-MBA) and attracting many students. Furthermore, new international classes focusing on Chinese students attracted 528 enrollees over the last three years, spurring our rise as a global business school. In addition, our off-campus programs commissioned by the military are vibrant, with 1,440 participants as of 2020, second to none among Korean business schools. I am convinced these successes were made possible by the collective hard work of everyone in our school, including the former dean.
Amid this rapid growth, I am honored to be in a position of high responsibility to lead GSBA. My mission is to promote this largest business school to the best ever in Korea. Quantitative growth without qualitative growth is no more than building castles in the sand. It is time to look back on our past efforts to see if we have paid as much attention on quality education as on quantitative growth.
Did we out as much effort into raising the education quality for students as we did for promoting our programs and recruiting students? What types of human resources do the head professors produce from their departments? Do we understand the kinds of knowledge and competencies are required to nurture future leaders? Do we have clearly defined educational goals? Do our curricula work systematically in line with the goals? Are our faculty armed with expertise and highly qualified? Are we committed to realizing learner-centered education based on student feedback on education quality? These are fundamental duties of business schools, but I am afraid we have failed them amidst our rapid growth. I can assure you that I will be faithful to fulfilling these basic duties.
GSBA community members, the students’ right to quality education must come first. Therefore, our grad students have the right to take the classes they want under the school rules. They are also entitled to ask for quality education. However, they have obligations as well as rights. GSBA students duly focus on their studies to reach the level the school sets for a degree. A prestigious graduate school has high expectations of its students and their academic achievements. Of course, nobody understands the difficulty of balancing between work and study better than I do. However, you will be known by your competence, not by your degrees. A graduate school becomes truly prestigious when its degrees are a guarantee of professional competence. In other words, we will be the best business school when we produce excellent business and management leaders by uncompromisingly providing quality education. My duty above all others is to make our graduation certificate more valuable so that it will work as a guarantee of public recognition. To this end, I am going after the five following objectives.
First, specialization.
We will identify and specialize in industrial areas suitable for industrial environments going forward to develop outstanding education programs superior to those at any other school.
Second, convergence.
We will create new management education programs through an unprecedented integration of new technologies, industries, or disciplines with the existing management sectors.
Third, globalization.
We will not only attract international students but also create and improve tailored programs to be well received as a truly global business school.
Fourth, outstanding education.
We will embrace new approaches to pedagogy and improve the quality of distance learning to encourage students to devote themselves to learning, inspire them to explore what they want, and help them achieve more than ever.
Fifth, quality education and administrative services.
We are committed to securing the finest faculty and improving education quality to provide you with excellent classes and programs. We will also never neglect our duties to better the administrative services for our students.
Thank you.
All best regards,
Song Sang-Ho
Dean of the Kyung Hee Graduate School of Business Administration
I was appointed as a full-time professor at KHU’s Graduate School of Business Administration in 1995. Since then, I have been at GSBA, witnessing its advancement for over 25 years. In preparation for the upcoming millennium, GSBA decided to add programs along with branch campuses in concert with the Korean Army, Navy, and Air Forces. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, those newly added programs, including Medical Management, Management Consulting, Arts & Cultural Management, Brand Management, and China Management, have held their ground as essential major programs. GSBA has been an innovative graduate school that emphasizes tailored, demand-driven education, distinguished business management education, and balance between theory and practice in education. In 2004, the Joongang Daily ranked our programs as being the most outstanding in the country.
We overcame a short slump subsequently by opening new weekend classes in concert with businesses (Service, Convergence, and E-MBA) and attracting many students. Furthermore, new international classes focusing on Chinese students attracted 528 enrollees over the last three years, spurring our rise as a global business school. In addition, our off-campus programs commissioned by the military are vibrant, with 1,440 participants as of 2020, second to none among Korean business schools. I am convinced these successes were made possible by the collective hard work of everyone in our school, including the former dean.
Amid this rapid growth, I am honored to be in a position of high responsibility to lead GSBA. My mission is to promote this largest business school to the best ever in Korea. Quantitative growth without qualitative growth is no more than building castles in the sand. It is time to look back on our past efforts to see if we have paid as much attention on quality education as on quantitative growth.
Did we out as much effort into raising the education quality for students as we did for promoting our programs and recruiting students? What types of human resources do the head professors produce from their departments? Do we understand the kinds of knowledge and competencies are required to nurture future leaders? Do we have clearly defined educational goals? Do our curricula work systematically in line with the goals? Are our faculty armed with expertise and highly qualified? Are we committed to realizing learner-centered education based on student feedback on education quality? These are fundamental duties of business schools, but I am afraid we have failed them amidst our rapid growth. I can assure you that I will be faithful to fulfilling these basic duties.
GSBA community members, the students’ right to quality education must come first. Therefore, our grad students have the right to take the classes they want under the school rules. They are also entitled to ask for quality education. However, they have obligations as well as rights. GSBA students duly focus on their studies to reach the level the school sets for a degree. A prestigious graduate school has high expectations of its students and their academic achievements. Of course, nobody understands the difficulty of balancing between work and study better than I do. However, you will be known by your competence, not by your degrees. A graduate school becomes truly prestigious when its degrees are a guarantee of professional competence. In other words, we will be the best business school when we produce excellent business and management leaders by uncompromisingly providing quality education. My duty above all others is to make our graduation certificate more valuable so that it will work as a guarantee of public recognition. To this end, I am going after the five following objectives.
First, specialization.
We will identify and specialize in industrial areas suitable for industrial environments going forward to develop outstanding education programs superior to those at any other school.
Second, convergence.
We will create new management education programs through an unprecedented integration of new technologies, industries, or disciplines with the existing management sectors.
Third, globalization.
We will not only attract international students but also create and improve tailored programs to be well received as a truly global business school.
Fourth, outstanding education.
We will embrace new approaches to pedagogy and improve the quality of distance learning to encourage students to devote themselves to learning, inspire them to explore what they want, and help them achieve more than ever.
Fifth, quality education and administrative services.
We are committed to securing the finest faculty and improving education quality to provide you with excellent classes and programs. We will also never neglect our duties to better the administrative services for our students.
Thank you.
All best regards,
Song Sang-Ho
Dean of the Kyung Hee Graduate School of Business Administration